Mickey Newbury - 'Frisco Mabel Joy (1971)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Mickey Newbury - A Long Road Home (2002)

Probably my all-time favorite country record. Acoustic guitars, sweeping string sections, the occasional gauzy synth, and haunted, reverb-drenched vocals. It's masterful tearjerker after masterful tearjerker, reaching an apex with "Frisco Depot", whose long-way-from-home desolation could draw tears from a stone.

Track listing:
1. An American Trilogy
2. How Many Times (Must the Piper Be Paid for His Song?)
3. Interlude
4. The Future's Not What It Used to Be
5. Mobile Blue
6. Frisco Depot
7. You're Not My Same Sweet Baby
8. Interlude
9. Remember the Good
10. Swiss Cottage Place
11. How I Love Them Old Songs

Frisco's a full day from home when you can afford to fly
But it might as well be the moon when you're as broke as I

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Lee Clayton -
Lee Clayton (1973)

Iris DeMent -
Infamous Angel (1992)

Mickey Newbury - A Long Road Home (2002)

Tearjerking country from sadly departed country great Mickey Newbury. A Long Road Home is the last album that Newbury completed before his death in September of 2002, and his preoccupation with mortality and half-bitter, misty-eyed retrospection certainly gives the listener the impression that he knew that it might be his final musical statement. His gentle picking and quavering voice are given a lush backdrop of violin, cello, synthesizer, banjo, mandolin, piano, and ethereal backing vocals. While all of the songs are strong, the real gems here are the over 10-minute-long first and penultimate tracks, each of which is an incredible showcase of weatherbeaten, downcast, big-hearted, bittersweet songwriting.

Track listing:
1. In '59
2. I Don't Love You
3. The Last Question (In the Dead of the Night)
4. Here Comes the Rain, Baby
5. One More Song of Hearts and Flowers
6. A Moment with Heather
7. Where Are You Darlin' Tonight
8. So Sad
9. Maybe
10. A Long Road Home
11. 116 Westfield Street

Hoist the sails, Bud, to hell with the breeze
Prayed for a wind that will bend every tree
And a storm that will bring every man to his knee
Here's to the howlin' sea
Here's to tomorrow, and here's to today
Here's to whatever I never could say
Here's to the piper, the bastard's been paid